A JSE Fanfic
Chapter Twelve: The Next Course of Action
[This is part of an INCOMPLETE SERIES that I wrote in about 2018-2019. I don't know if I'll ever finish it, but I still think there's good stuff in it, and merit in reposting it here. A week later, Jackie and Sam manage to find Marvin, and a new lead. But then they’re interrupted. And things quickly go downhill from there, as static fills his mind…]
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Time passed. The four remaining boys settled into a routine. Get up, scour the Internet, go to work (or look for a job for the two who didn’t have one already), come back home and resume the search. Schneep still didn’t have his apartment back, so he roomed with Jackie. JJ insisted that he was fine at home alone, but almost every night Chase would open his door and quietly let Jameson inside to sleep over before returning to his house the first thing next morning.

Sam stayed with Jackie. They got really attached to him really quickly. When he fell asleep, he always woke up with them curled up on his chest, glowing softly. And when he went out on patrol at night, looking for crime and also keeping an eye out for the kids, Sam followed. Jackie didn’t mind. The little eye could look out for themselves, and it was nice to have company on these cold nights in the city.

It was a week before they found a lead. Or rather, a lead found them. Jackie was out on patrol in the northern part of the city—the most run-down part. Most of the buildings here were abandoned, and there were a lot of empty warehouses that nobody used anymore. Or at least, nobody was supposed to. The entire section was rife with criminals, to the point where Jackie actually tried to avoid it if possible. He was just one man, and he was outnumbered in this area. But…to be honest, he was starting to get a bit frantic in his search for the kids. They all were. A week missing was never good, but in THESE circumstances, with the glitch on the loose…

Jackie was sitting on the roof of one of the buildings, which might have been an old apartment complex before it was abandoned. His legs dangled over the edge. He sighed, and rubbed his eyes under his mask. Sam flew in front of his face, pupil wide and radiating concern. “What? No, I’m fine, Sam,” he insisted. “Just tired.” Sam flicked their tail, as if to say, 'yeah, sure.' “No, really! It’s been a long night, and nothing much has happened. Nothing has happened…at all really.”

Sam gently bumped against him, emitting a cheerful energy. Jackie smiled a bit. “Yeah, I’m keeping up that positive mental attitude. Gotta have hope. Gotta make sure the others have it as well.” He had to. He was the most optimistic one of them all; if he gave up, they would follow, and they couldn’t afford that.

Sam’s glow dimmed a bit, then re-brightened. They darted away, heading toward the roof exit of the building before turning back around and looking at Jackie expectantly. “What is it?” The hero frowned, puzzled. “You want to…show me something?” Sam bobbed once. Jackie clambered to his feet. “Alright, lead the way, then.”

Sam led Jackie back down through the abandoned building and out onto the street. Once there, they zoomed off in a seemingly random direction. “Wh—Sam, wait up!” The little eye was incredibly fast sometimes. Jackie sprinted to keep up. Sam didn’t slow down, not even at intersections. They turned and dashed in a twisting route, until Jackie began to suspect they didn’t know where they were going.

At one point Jackie turned a corner and ran head-first into someone in a purple hoodie. He didn’t stop to apologize, mostly because there was no time if he wanted to keep up with Sam, and also partly because the patrons of this city section didn’t usually look too kindly on vigilantes and he didn’t want to draw attention to himself. Not too long after that, Sam took a side street and darted into an alleyway. A second later, Jackie heard a voice: “Who the—Sam?! What the hell are you doing here?!”

Jackie paused for a moment in shock, then ducked into the alley. “Marvin? Is that you?”

The alley was small, big enough for two people to walk side-by-side but not much bigger than that, and also dark. Sam’s green glow helped Jackie see the outline of a person. “Jackie?” the familiar voice gasped. “I gotta—hang on a sec.” He muttered something Jackie couldn’t make out, and suddenly five glowing orbs sprang into existence, giving off a soft yellow-green light. Jackie blinked a bit to let his eyes adjust. Now he could see that somehow, against all odds, he’d run right into Marvin. His mask was on, and he tapped his wand nervously against his palm. “What’re you doing here?” he asked.

“Well, I was out on patrol, then all of a sudden Sam went off and I followed because, y’know, seemed important. I think they knew you were here?” The eye was currently swishing around the floating lights, looking illegally cute.

“Okay, wow, uh—I didn’t even know I was gonna be here. That’s impossible.”

“The fuck do you mean?”

“I mean that I have no plan,” Marvin admitted. “I’ve just been kinda…wandering around the city, and the area around it. What’ve you guys been doing? How are the others?”

Jackie sighed. “Well, things could be going better. Chase is obviously a mess. He’s…having a bad time right now. I don’t think he’s eating, and he’s oversleeping a lot. I can tell something is up with him, but he won’t tell me anything. And JJ started having nightmares again—”

“What?!” The glowing orbs briefly flared before dimming again. “Oh fuck, sorry, didn’t mean to do that.”

“Nah, it’s okay. But, uh, yeah. At least he’s been telling us about them this time. That’s progress!”

Marvin looked doubtful at Jackie’s falsely cheery tone. “I see…and, uh, Schneep? How’s he holding up?”

“Not…too well,” Jackie said slowly. “He’s trying to get his job at the hospital back, but apparently they replaced him with an amateur and he’s pretty angry ‘bout that. And the other day, I was doing some cooking and he was offering to help, but I pointed at him and said ‘you go sit down and wait, I’m doin’ this cause of friendship,’ only I, uh, was holding a knife and the time, so when I pointed it at him he freaked out. I…really didn’t mean to, I didn’t even think about it, but…”

“Jesus fucking christ,” Marvin muttered. “I leave for a week and everything goes to shit.”

“Y’know somehow I doubt anything much would’ve changed if you’d been here all this time. Didn’t you once tell me that you liked to fuck things up?” Jackie’s mouth twitched. “Those exact words.”

“I don’t remember that, but yeah, sounds like something I’d say,” Marvin shrugged. “What about the kids? Am I off the hook yet?”

“I think you should remember that you put yourself on the hook in the first place. You were like a gullible fish.”

“No, I was a fish that was like ‘yeah, Chase can’t outrun the cops, I have a better shot.’ But anyway, is there any progress?”

Jackie shook his head. “You have no idea how many deep web searches Chase and I have ran. I’m gonna end up attracting the wrong kind of attention, again. Also, I’ve been looking for them at night, y’know, like I’m doing now. But nothing. Do you have anything, or has your lack of a plan gotten in the way?”

“Hey, don’t underestimate my improv skills!” Marvin wiggled his fingers, unintentionally causing the orbs to flicker. “Ya know there’s a whole magic underground? I didn’t either, but they’re surprisingly helpful!”

“Uhh, when you mention something underground my instincts scream ‘illegal!’ at me. Should I be concerned?”

“Nah, they’re cool. Been around for decades, mostly trade spellbooks and talismans. It’s just underground ‘cause, well, most people don’t believe in magic.”

Jackie squinted at him. Marvin wasn’t quite looking him in the eyes. “Really?”

“Yes, really,” Marvin insisted. “Anyway, if you know where to look you can find all kinds of cool shit. And…I might have found something?”

Jackie’s heart leaped. “Really?”

“Yeah!” Marvin nodded vigorously. “Okay, so, you remember the scrying spell and how it went wrong?”

“Vividly,” Jackie muttered.

“So I was wondering if that was because of him, or if I just didn’t know what I was doing, or something else. I did some digging around, and found two explanations for why it blew up. One, he was able to catch me watching and basically warped the connection until it broke. Entirely possible, even plausible, but there’s another option. We reached the kids perfectly well, but they weren’t in this reality.”

“Uh, what?”

“Shut up, I’m explaining.” Marvin flicked his wand, and a simple diagram appeared, made of green light and hovering in the air like a hologram. It was a simple sphere, with several flat circles floating around it, connected by thin streams of misty green. “Okay, so this globe is the world, right?” Marvin tapped it with his wand. “It’s the universe. We live here. But these things—” he tapped one of the circles “—are what we can call pocket dimensions. They’re different realities, connected to ours. Some are constant, some appear sporadically, sometimes you can summon the entrance, sometimes the entrances open on their own and you can accidentally walk through. They’re all pretty small though, the largest one being the equivalent of a small country in size. Following me so far?”

“Uh, yeah, I think so.”

“Okay, so here’s the kicker: you can’t scry into a pocket dimension. If you try, then the spell will backfire on you, violently. Pretty similar to what happened to us. And we haven’t been having luck with finding Bobby and Trevor, have we? Maybe for a good reason?”

“Wait. Wait wait wait.” Jackie’s mind was whirling. Sam stopped their frolicking and settled down on the top of his head like they could hear his mile-a-minute thoughts. “You’re saying they might be in one of these?!”

“Exactly!” Marvin shouted triumphantly. “Seems like something he would do, right? And it would also makes sense why we couldn’t find Schneep those months, too! We looked fucking everywhere!”

“Oh my god,” Jackie breathed. No wonder there was no sign of the kids. He’d been starting to suspect they were somewhere else in the world entirely, but maybe they weren’t in the world at all. “And-and can you get into this pocket dimension? Is that possible?”

“I’ve been working on a few tricks,” Marvin grinned. “I’m trynta figure out how to open entrances. I ALMOST had it night before last, almost got into the mirror dimension, but it didn’t stay open very long. And there are a couple more tricks, especially when it comes to, say, forcing your way into a hostile pocket. But I’m sure that if I just keep practicing we can at least try to find them.”

“Marvin that is fantastic news!” Jackie rushed forward and wrapped his arms around the magician, squeezing tight.

“Whoa, hey! Non-consensual hug! I need to breathe here!” Marvin didn’t actually sound too upset.

“Sorry,” said Jackie, not the least bit sorry. He let go and stepped back. “It just—god, finally, some progress! It feels so good!”

“You tell me. It’s only been a few days and I’m already sick of being an outlaw. Obviously we need to wait a bit longer, but I—what’s Sam doing?”

Jackie turned around. Sam had been dislodged from their perch when he attack-hugged Marvin. Now they were staying completely still in the air, as if suspended their by a wire, facing the entrance to the alleyway. Their optic nerve was sticking upward, like a cat raising its tail at a threat, and they’d started glowing brighter. “Uh…I dunno. I’ve never seen them do this before.” Jackie crept forward, glad his super suit boots muffled his footsteps. The tip of Marvin’s wand flared a dark green, then Marvin walked forward, completely quiet. The two of them exchanged looks, silently agreeing on a plan. When they reached the alley entrance, Jackie held up three fingers. Then two. Then one, and—

In unison the two of them jumped out onto the street, Marvin going left with his wand at the ready and Jackie leaping right. Immediately Jackie saw someone and tackled them, falling to the ground. The person yelped. “Get off me!” Jackie rolled away and stood up, but remained at the ready. It was the same guy he’d run into earlier, in the purple hoodie. But now he had more time to look, and realized he recognized him.

Marvin looked his direction and scowled. “Oh fan-fucking-tastic, it’s one of those detectives.”

It was the shorter, dark-haired one, Detective Akela. He rubbed the back of his head where it hit the pavement and glared up at Marvin. “Yes, it’s one of those detectives. I’d say it’s good to see you again, Mr. Moore, but it’s not.”

“The feeling is mutual, dickface.”

“Marvin, no,” Jackie said sternly. “You’re not jumping straight into insults.”

“I can jump straight into whatever I want, the dude tried to arrest Chase!” Marvin yelled.

“Well, yeah!” Jackie yelled back. “Because that’s his job! Maybe if we didn’t antagonize the police, they wouldn’t arrest any of us!”

“Fuck that! I can antagonize anyone who goes after you guys, I don’t care what their job is!”

“You two do realize I’m still here, right?” Akela said, climbing to his feet.

Jackie’s head whipped toward him. The detective seemed like he’d been listening for a while… “How much of that did you hear?!” he asked, slightly panicked.

Akela hesitated. “I didn’t hear anything. I was just passing by and you two jumped me.”

“Bullshit!” Marvin spat. “Sam started acting weird, they must’ve realized you were eavesdropping on us.”

“Who the hell is Sam?” Akela demanded.

Marvin and Jackie glanced back down the alley, but the eye seemed to have disappeared. “They’re probably hiding,” Jackie muttered. “But the point is, we know you heard us talking down there. You’re kind of an awful liar for a detective.”

Akela looked like he wanted to keep fighting, but then his shoulders slumped and he seemed to give up. “Yeah. I know. Lydia always handles that part. I’m more of an observer, or a, um, thinker. She finds the pieces, I put ‘em together. So, uh, yeah, I heard pretty much everything that went on in there. You bumped into me and I thought, ‘hey, there’s the vigilante, better follow him!’ because I’m…an idiot, I guess. And I may have…caught a lot of that.”

“Wow, you told us all that way too easily,” Marvin said in a biting voice. “What are you even doing here?! Nobody lives in this area! And out this late?!”

“It was a shortcut, alright?!” Akela snapped. “Not all of us have his luck—” he pointed at Jackie “—and get an apartment of our own in a central part of the city! And some of us work late shifts, and have to walk through the deadly part of town to get back home so we can sleep!”

Jackie suddenly became very still and silent. “How do you know where I live?”

Akela went pale. “I—well, I—I mean, I heard you—you both seem familiar with each other, and also, we-we-we did background checks on most of you, so I’m pretty familiar with your faces at this point, and, uh, you mentioned the others, and I was there—”

“Fuck!” Marvin shouted, sparks flying from the end of his wand. Akela jumped back. “Fucking perfect! Now he knows who you are! Now he knows where I am! Now everything’s fucking awful!”

“Marvin for god’s sake, calm down!” Jackie snapped. “He’s not gonna tell anyone, right?” He glared at Akela. “Right?”

Akela looked away, putting his hands in his hoodie pocket. “I…don’t know. At first I thought I would have to, what with the Brody kids missing and you confessing…I thought I would hear some information that might find them, and break the case. But then you two started talking about weird shit, and it might be code but you seem like you’re trying to find the kids…and now I’m just confused.”

Jackie sighed. “Look, we’re not the bad guys here. Marvin isn’t the bad guy. He just wanted to protect his friends. And I know you’ve got that-that video footage, that you thinks proves everything, but it doesn’t. We’re on the case as much as you are, and we know a whole hell of a lot more than you do. It would be safer if you stayed out of it.”

He glanced at Marvin to see if he would back him up, but Marvin was staring suspiciously at Akela’s hoodie pocket. “Do you…have something in there?” he asked slowly.

“Just my phone,” Akela hurried to respond.

“Well I can see you playing with it through the fabric. Why are you doing that?”

Akela took a step backward, and that only confirmed Marvin’s suspicions. In a flash, quite literally, he was directly in front of the detective, who was struggling to pull away as Marvin tried to get into his pocket. Only a few moments of wrestling later, and Marvin backed away, holding a black smart phone in his hand.

Jackie gaped. “Marvin, I was JUST trying to explain we’re not the bad guys! You’re not helping when you do shit like this!”

“Dude, he was recording us!” Marvin showed the phone’s screen to Jackie. “He got a lot of it too!”

“Give it back,” Akela growled.

“Or what? Do you have a gun on you or something? No, I don’t think so, otherwise you just would’ve confronted us instead of lurking in the shadows.” Marvin pursed his lips. “Now the question is, should I delete this video?”

“I’d like to point out that you two were hiding in the shadows, and I was on the streetlamp-lit sidewalk outside!” Akela countered. “Look, just, give me back my phone, with the video, and I won’t tell anyone about Mr. Parker’s midnight outings.”

“You make it sound so formal,” Jackie muttered.

Marvin looked at Jackie. “What d’you think? Should I delete it?”

Jackie hesitated. “I have no idea. I trust him, but…” he didn’t need to finish the sentence. That video could easily be used to identify Jackie as the vigilante, for anyone who was clever enough to put the pieces together like Akela did.

Marvin shrugged. “Oh well.” He tapped the delete button on the screen. Akela made a strange kind of squeak sound. “Guess it’s better safe than—” He cut himself off. His eyes widened as he stared at the screen.

“What is it?” Jackie asked.

“It—it came back,” Marvin breathed. “It CAME BACK.” He pressed delete again, only for the video to reappear once more. He tried again, with the same result. “It’s not going away!”

Akela’s eyes darted between Jackie and Marvin. “Why do you two look so worried? It’s just a glitch. Sometimes deleted photos or videos look like they come back, but they don’t actually. You guys win, okay? It’s gone forever.”

Suddenly, Marvin dropped the phone with a gasp. It landed screen-up on the pavement. The phone was glitching rapidly between different apps, lagging and breaking under a layer of white noise. It was letting off a faint sound of static that was steadily growing louder. At times, it almost seemed like voices—or laughter.

“Shit!” Jackie gasped. Marvin didn’t say anything, just pointed his wand at the phone. A concentrated beam of green lightning shot out and hit the phone in a flash of yellow sparks, breaking it into three pieces.

But the static didn’t stop.

Akela could only stare. “Why did you do that? No, HOW did you do that?! How the hell did you do that?!”

Marvin didn’t answer, only looked at Jackie with wide eyes. “He’s here.”

Jackie could feel his heart pounding out of his chest. But he nodded. “We need to leave. Now.”

“What’s going on?!” Akela sounded like he was trying to be brave, but there was a tremble in his voice. “Who’s ‘he?’ Why are you so scared—WHAT THE HELL IS THAT?!”

Sam had finally chosen this moment to come out of the alley where they were hiding. They flew over to Jackie and settled on his shoulder, radiating worry.

“That’s Sam,” Marvin said curtly. “Now listen close, detective.” He took a few steps forward and grabbed Akela by the shoulders. “You don’t know what’s going on. Keep it that way. The more you know, the more attention you draw, and you do not want his attention. Just go home, go to sleep, and forget tonight ever happened. Let us take care of this ourselves, because you have no idea what the fuck you’re getting into, and trust me when I say you don’t want to know. Now go.” He let go of Akela’s shoulders, but the detective could only gape up at him. He growled, then clapped his hands, causing a flurry of green sparks to fly outward. “Get out of here!” Akela jumped, then ran across the street, disappearing around a building corner.

The static was getting louder.

“We should split up,” Jackie said.

Marvin whirled on him. “Are you insane?! Have you seen any horror movie ever?! Splitting up is the worst kind of suicide in these situations!”

“Marvin shut up and listen to me!” Jackie shrieked. His tone quieted Marvin. “Look, he’s only one glitch—demon—entity thing. He probably can’t go after both of us at once. And I know, you’re gonna say we’re stronger together or something, and you’re right, but I—” Jackie swallowed. “I couldn’t live with myself if something happened to you. If something happened to both of us, and I couldn’t do anything to stop it. Don’t make me watch that happen.”

Marvin was at a loss for words, for once. But he nodded. “I don’t get it, but…sure. If you want. Take Sam with you.” He started back down the alleyway. “And…be safe. I don’t think I could live with that either.” He was gone.

Jackie waited only a second before taking off in the other direction, Sam still on his shoulder. The sound of the static followed him, hissing in his ears no matter how fast he ran or how much he turned. Jackie didn’t let himself stop, just kept sprinting. He had to get to safety. Where was that again? Home? That sounded slightly better than anywhere else.

I͏t'͏͡͞s ̵̨a̸l̶̡l̵͝ ̡͏y̶̨͢ǫu̵͝r͏ ̸f̷̕a͠u͠l̨͢t̵͠

Jackie skidded to a halt in surprise, before immediately starting back up again. He could’ve sworn he heard…but he shook it off. Hearing words in white noise was not a good sign. Neither was seeing it in the corner of your vision, which totally wasn’t happening nope not at all. Hadn’t he already run down this street? Twice? He had no choice, he had to take a break and get his bearings.

He forced himself to stop again, panting. Sam fell off his shoulder and tumbled to the ground. They glowed weakly, their light…flickering. Dimming. They shivered weakly.

“Sam, are you alright?” Jackie gasped. The words came out slowly. He had to blink through the fog in his head. Sam looked up to him, trembling. The answer seemed to be no.

I̵͝t̶̸̕'̶͏s̷͟ a̧l͝l̕͞͠ y̸͡o̷̡͢ưŗ̸ ͢͠f̴au͞͝lt̛

“He’s not good for you, is he?” Jackie asked. Sam made a sort of half-bob in confirmation. “Sam, you have to go. You can fly a lot faster than I can run.” That made the little eye’s glow brighten a bit as they jumped up and hovered in the air. “No, Sam, go. The rest of the guys need you, don’t they? And I don’t want to imagine what’ll happen if he gets you.”

That didn’t faze Sam at all. They shot straight up to Jackie’s eye level, then flickered and dropped down a foot. “See?!” Jackie exclaimed.

I̴ţ̕'̢s ̶̶͢a̵ll͟͏ ̷y̢͝o̢͡u̕͏r͝͝ ̷̢f̛a͏̶̷u̕ļ̶̴t

Yo̕͠u͝ ̵͏ḑ̧͢i̴̸d thi͝s

Jackie noticed he was shaking. Why was he doing that? Sam looked up at him with a concerned gaze. “Sam, you gotta go. Please,” Jackie pleaded. Sam stared at him blankly, their light flickering more and more. Then an air of determination came over them. With a sudden burst of energy, the eye darted forward, ramming right into Jackie’s chest with such force that he stumbled back a few steps. He gasped. He felt something warm deep within him; a burst of appreciation, he assumed, for Sam’s unwillingness to leave.

Sam’s light dimmed, and they dropped to the ground.

Jackie’s mouth suddenly felt really dry. “Sam?” There was no response. The hero knelt on the ground next to them. “Sam?! Are you okay?!”

Į̛t'͢s̕ ̶a̢ll ͢you͟r͠͠ ̷̢fa̶u̶l͞t̶͟͠

The little eye didn’t move at all, their glow barely visible. Gently, Jackie scooped them up. They were the size of a tennis ball, but they seemed so much smaller. “Sam, please. Answer me!”

Y̛ǫ̵u̴̡ ̢̧d͢id̷ t̛͢h͟͝i̛s̶͡

“Sam, please I can’t have—I can’t have—not this too!”

I̛̩̮̗͈̝͔̩͡t̛̟̝͍'̧̳͓̗͖͉̜͔͎͞s̵̴̝͇̲̲̤ ̪̕̕a̯̭̻͔͝l̨̻ļ̙̜̮͖͍ͅ ͉̻̫͕̮̝̩͞y̸̭͍̬̗̰̰̳̭̹o̶̸͕̖̪u̻̣̣r̳̥̱͍̱̝̫͠ ̵̙̠̗̙f̖̼͓a̗̖̬̩̙̪u̶͉̭͓̘͟l̴̠̱̲͉̲̼̠̜t̘̠̼

“I tried! I’m trying!”

Y̸̯̻̬̬̝̱o̷͡҉̼͔̟̥u҉͡ ͕̙̙̥͢ͅd͈̤̤i̵̭͉͕̤͎̠̣d̪̘̻͉̙̳̼̰͢͡ ̢͏̟͔͎̰͕̼͉͡ṯ̢̛h̴҉͉͉̯̘̖i̮̬̼͕̬͕̹̤̬̕͠s̮̹͎͎̖̥̤̦͡

Jackie felt tears in his eyes, and then—

It happened between one blink and the next. There was a man, kneeling on the sidewalk, holding a small green orb in his hands. And then? There was nothing but a few red shadows drifting in the wind and the sound of triumphant laughter.